The Innocence of Children
by 0.o person
Summary: A short one shot about the children of all the couples in P&P.


_Authors Note: this was an assignment for my humanities teacher. I did it in one night, and I hate the ending…. But I'm too lazy to change it. ^^ I did, however, add more visual detail to the story, so you guys are getting it in a better form then my teacher! The assignment was to write about the kids from all the couples of the book…. This is what I came up with… any criticism is accepted, but please don't flame me…. _

_The characters in here belong to someone who isn't me, they used to belong to Jain Austen, but she died, so… I don't own them and I'm not making any money… _

**The Innocence of Children**

Every couple of years, there was a family reunion at one of the Bennet Sister's houses. This year, it was at Mr. and Mrs. Darcy's house. Though, as far as Ann, Timothy and Joseph were concerned, it was _their _house, their parents were just there to do all that grown up stuff that kept the house from falling down on their heads. Ann, being the oldest, had the say of the house right after the parents. She was eleven, missing teeth and all. Joseph was the middle child, born after two miscarriages. Seven years old, which he was glad to tell you if asked. Little Timothy was almost not born due to the fact that he was came right after yet another miscarriage that drove Mrs. Darcy into a short depression. He was three and a half, and enjoyed running down the long halls of the house and the attention of any visitors who came to look at the Darcy's house.

The Bingley's were the first to have shown up, and they brought with them not only Martha, Julian and Sahara, but also their newest child, Robert, whom the rest of the family had only heard about in the letters Jane had sent them. He was a cute little thing with brown colored hair that would most defiantly become red and blue eyes. He was of interest to the Bennett's children until he started crying in an annoying-loud way and they were shooed out of the room by the grown-ups for upsetting him.

The Collins showed up next, seeing that Mr. Collins was a cousin of the Benet's and the fact that Mrs. Collins was a good friend of the family, they were always included in family gatherings. They brought with them William Jr., Margret, Helena and Ross. William was fourteen, the oldest of all the children, and no longer bothered with childish games. Instead he was more interested in what the grown ups talked about, even if he didn't always understand _what _they were talking about. Margret was eight, Helena was six and Ross, the youngest, was two, and loved playing with Joseph.

Aunt Kitty and Aunt Mary showed up next, giggling and talking about a cute boy they had seen on their way there. Or, at least, Aunt Kitty was giggling, Aunt Mary talked in her weird way, and said something about "a appealing young man with ruffled sandy brown hair and eyes that twinkled, whom had a great appetite for knowledge" with a slight blush on her cheeks. Though the children loved Aunt Kitty, they found Aunt Mary rather dull and dry, especially the way she talked. Margret, though, was taking music lessons from her, and somehow had become immune to the long and boring speeches their aunt made.

Mr. and Mrs. Wickham showed up last, as usual. Sometimes, they didn't show up at all, for one reason or another. They had two children, Susan and Michael, whom were five-year-old twins. They were both rowdy and impolite, or at least, more so then most children their age, with sandy brown hair and bright blue eyes that sparkled when they laughed.

Once all the parents were there all the children, except for William, were shooed out of the sitting room and into the nursery. The nursery was a medium sized green room with a blue, fluffy, soft rug underfoot, and plenty of toys. The nurse was a strict lady with a long nose and salt and pepper colored hair done up in a bun. She had a pair of spectacles that were almost never in front of her dark brown eyes. The children _hated_ her, with a burning passion, and had tried to get her fired or have her quit at every possible chance.

Once in the nursery, the children split into groups, Sahara and Susan were the first to break off from the large group of kids and they started playing with blocks. Ann and Martha went off and continued trying to teach Margret how to read from picture books. Julian, Joseph and Michael, not wanting to be with the girls, went out to the halls and played soldier. Timothy and Helena went out with Ross to teach him of the mysterious ways of toddlers.

All was going well, until the nurse went out to check on the boys after hearing a crash. As it turned out, they had broken a small, un-important piece of china. Even if it was small un-important, and rather ugly, really, the nurse flew into a complete rage at the boys for being so carless, and sent them back to the nursery, were there was not enough space to play soldier. Not that the nurse cared, but the girls did, they didn't like the boys running through their block towers (Ann Martha and Margret had decided to take a break and play with the blocks), and jumping over their doll houses and, worst off all, the loud noises they made as they dramatically fell on top of the girls just to annoy them.

The Toddlers, whom had come back from their mysterious Toddler Teachings, were also upset by the loud noises, but they didn't do anything about it until Michael, the clumsiest, ran over Ross. Ross did what any two year old would do in this situation, he cried. It was a loud wailing cry, that he wouldn't stop doing, no matter what the nurse did to calm him.

Joseph, who was annoyed at being lectured, having the girls shriek at him in their high pitched voices to stop running into their games, even though it was _their _fault, _they _were in _his _way. If they didn't like it, they should just move. So he told Ross rudely in the same way that any other seven year old would to shut up. When Ross didn't react, he wanted his parents, not some weird lady with a long nose, Joseph got louder and louder.

Margret, who had sensitive ears, started shouting at both of them to be quite because she had a headache, which only added to the noise. Helena and Timothy decided to add to the chaos by running around in circles and yelling "Be quite! Be quite!" like a chant.

Michael, who had hit his head after running over Ross, was also crying, a large purple-blue bump growing on his forehead. He sat on the floor, bawling his eyes out, as Julian, a kind hearted and level headed child, tried to comfort him. By now, Martha and Ann had ganged up on and started a shouting match with Joseph, telling him how insensitive he was to yell at an injured toddler.

With all this noise, it was hard for the parents to _not _notice and come running into the room. They open the door to see a rather disgruntled nurse, her hair falling out of her bun, standing in a sea of wreckage, children shouting at each other and crying, with two toddlers running around her legs on there wobbly feet, shouting "Be quite!" while she tried to comfort a crying Ross.

The parents instantly went to their children, comforting and soothing or breaking up fights. Afterword's, when the wounds had stopped hurting and punishments had been received, the parents decided it was time for dinner and stayed with their children for the rest of the visit.

As Ann lay in bed going over the day, she smiled. Though the nurse had not been fired, nor had she quit, she had been given a harsh lecture by all the parents about letting the situation get out of control. But Ann had noticed that her feathers had been ruffled for the rest of the day. She was closer to quitting, one point for the kids. She fell to sleep smiling.


End file.
